So you've done the initial "hard" work to get on your potential new referrers' R.A.D.A.R., as outlined in my earlier posts expanding on this favourite marketing mantra of mine(!). Your service has achieved some recognition with them and they have seen that your service is available to meet their clients' needs within a timeframe that is acceptable ... and so a first referral from them lands on your desk.

Congratulations, you are on your way! However, you'd be wrong to think that you've cracked it at this stage, because up to this, all you've been doing is raising your profile. Now ... you have to prove yourself worthy. Now that you've received this first referral from your new referral partner, if you want them to consider you for further referrals in the future, you actually have to deliver on the promise of your original message.

How do you do this? Quite simply, you do exactly what you have told them you will do for their client ... and more. If you've told them you'll offer an initial appointment within 48 hours of the referral, you offer that initial appointment within 48 hours. If you've explained that you'll provide a written initial assessment following the first meeting with the client, you make sure that you get that off to them within a day of seeing their client. If you created any additional expectations of the service that you will provide to their clients, you make damn sure that you meet those expectations ... and more!

Indeed, over-delivery, if it is at all possible, should be your ultimate goal for your service. If you've said you would write to the client with an appointment, telephone them instead and make the arrangements in person, following up with a confirmation letter, copied to the referrer. If you've agreed to submit an end-of-treatment report, contact the referrer a few sessions into the treatment phase to give them an update (again, a telephone call is better for this than a letter, as it allows for that personal contact that builds your recognition and establishes a relationship that you can build on in the future). Provide your client with additional resources over and above your sessional interaction, such as some take-away literature on their problem presentation that allows them to have a better understanding of why they are having the difficulties they are having and how the treatment you are presenting to them can relieve this.

Over-deliver, and keep your referrer updated on progress across your involvement with their client so that they can clearly see that you are fulfilling the promise that your early contact offered to them. In doing so, you allow them to feel positive about theirdecision to give your service a chance; you help them to look good in the eyes of their client, who had relied on them to find them someone who could meet their needs; and, most importantly for you and your service, you increase significantly the likelihood that they will refer to you the next time they have someone in front of them who is in need of the type of services you provide. DELIVERY is probably the most critical component of my R.A.D.A.R. message ... get this right, and all your efforts to be noticed (and bring in more referrals) will pay off, over and over again. For more ideas about how to build your business, check out my Business Breakthrough Programme and learn how Mirror Coaching can help you to maximise your referrals and grow a sustainable practice.

As you strive to raise your profileto bring in more enquiries and referrals to help build your practices, you may think that getting your website launched will be a catalyst for this. But that website needs to be found and that requires that your site moves up the search rankings. And we all know how hard that is, don't we?

So when Google gives you a gift like Google Authorship, that can move you up those rankings with only a little effort on your part, you really should pay attention, shouldn't you? Demian Farnworth's article, "10 Reasons Writers Should Claim Google Authorship Markup" on Copyblogger.com, explains how you can go about taking advantage of this new tool and, trust me, you need to put these ideas into action. I have, so let's see how it has worked out for me ...

The screen-grab (above right) shows the 1st page of a Google search for "therapy practice building", one of the areas I coach on, and, as you can see, that's me, 5th organic item (of 13.5 million results!) on the front page. And, as the only item with a photo attached (a feature of Authorship), the likelihood that you might check my page out first is greatly increased, because the presence of a photo draws the eye to that item. It also features my name prominently, so adding to my authority as an author and "expert" in this field, and helping visitors trust that this is a legitimate site from a legitimate business. Can't be bad, eh?

And it cost me nothing more than a little bit of time to understand the steps I needed to follow ... and then to get on and follow them. All within a few weeks of applying the ideThere is still more I need to do, I know, but this is a very good starting point. And you can do it too, so why not get reading and get implementing!

To expand on these ideas further and build your business with some 1-to-1 support, check out my Business Breakthrough Programme, where I outline some of the key steps that you need to take to help grow your business and achieve all you want to with your practice.

Marketing your business can be a hit-and-miss activity at times, so any guidance that makes this more effective has got to be worth paying attention to. I've written elsewhere about the importance of building your referral partner network and word of mouth marketing, so when I read Geoffrey James' article on "How to Build a Network of Contacts", expanding on Joanne Black's book, "No More Cold Calling", I felt I just had to mention it here too.

This IS a sales book, but the information on developing your referral contacts is worth noting.

Black reminds us that there are 4 types of people who trust us enough to recommend us or refer to us, and notes that if we cultivate these relationships, we develop a network that will help generate word of mouth and direct referrals for our business without our having to spend time (and money) on less fruitful marketing efforts.

So, who are these 4 types of super-value folk? You can read about them in more detail in the article and Black's book, but in brief, they are: your satisfied clients (easier for coaches to cultivate, maybe, than therapists, but still an important grouping); your family and friends (they know you and trust you, don't they?); people who have had your services recommended to them (and if the recommender lets you know they have passed your details on, you can follow-up with them, safe in the knowledge that they will be receptive to your call); and finally, people you meet through connecting with the people in the last category (e.g. you meet with a contact who has had your service recommended to them, and they introduce you to a third party, thus passing on a residual message of trust that gives you credibility with the new contact).

Developing these groups of contacts can have a powerful impact on the growth of your practice.

To expand on these ideas and grow your business, check out my Business Breakthrough Programme, where I outline some key steps and present some tools that you can use to help increase your visibility and recognition factor with potential referrers.

The 2nd letter we need to consider, as I expand upon my RADAR acronym, is "A" (as I hope you'll have guessed!), which stands for ... Availability.Once referral partners begin to recognise that your service might be just what their clients need, the next important element in their decision process will be based on whether or not they perceive that you are available to offer their clients an appointment sooner rather than later.We will all have experienced the frustration of calling someone to access their services - plumber, dentist, builder, NHS Mental Health Team (ahem!) - only to be told that they can see you ... but not for a couple of days/weeks/months (delete as experienced). But if that is how our referral partners come to experience their dealings with us ... where we respond to their enquiry to say we can see their client "in a month or two" ... the likelihood that they will call us next time they have someone who fits our criteria is greatly reduced. Private clients don't expect to have to wait for their service. I'm not saying that's ...

I recently tweeted a link to this article - The Power of Huge Goals And How to Achieve Them, by Matthew Toren, author of Small Business, BIG Vision - on how setting seemingly unattainable goals can be a really powerful way to help you push through to achieve bigger and better things for your business. The tweet got a really good response, so I thought I'd expand a little on this idea in a blog post, and give you all a chance to re-visit this advice.

Anyone running a business needs to set goals, we all know that. But these goals need to push you.

There is little growth value in setting a goal that you know you can easily achieve, whether you really try or not. A goal needs to move you forward and challenge you, so setting really audacious goals for yourself and your business works to focus your efforts and spark your creativity.

However, you do need to be realistic. You can still think big, but think big for you - a goal of ending world poverty, while admirable, may not be within your current capabilities, but doubling your client numbers within 6 months may be, with a concerted effort on your part.

So keep it simple and realistic, then break it down into chunks that you can work through to build towards your ultimate target.

Stay flexible and adjust your efforts and goals according to the feedback you gather as you work on your project. As you do, you will see more clearly what it is you need to do to achieve your goals and so become more effective in your business development. As this happens, your goals will grow as you realise just what it is you can achieve within your business.

So ... what are you going to set as your BIG goal for the next phase of your business development? Let me know by adding a comment below. For more ideas about how to grow your business, check out my Business Breakthrough Programme and learn how Mirror Coaching can help you to develop your goals and grow your business.

In a recent blog post, I outlined the basic elements that I believe you need to take into account if you want to ensure that you are on your potential referrers' RADAR, and so increase the likelihood that they will send work your way.In this series of posts, I want to begin to break down my RADAR* acronym by looking at what each of the letters stand for in a little more depth.

So here, let's look at my first "R": Recognition ... Have you ever found yourself talking to someone whom you would like to have refer clients to your service only to find that, as you mention some aspect of your service, they look surprised, and say something along the lines of "Oh, I never knew you did that sort of work!"? They may know that you are a "therapist", a "coach", a "psychologist" or whatever, but they have failed to connect the dots and link your work with possibly resolving a particular need of one of their contacts. Yet, you had "assumed" that if they knew of your professional role, they would obviously "know" who you work with and what you do?

This, or a variation of this, is an easy mistake to make. Maybe we've simply "hung out our shingle" and assumed that would be enough to bring the clients flocking to our door? Experience tells us differently, though, doesn't it? The reality is that we can't assume anything about our business really; we need to be proactive, from the start, in our efforts to let the world (and particularly our potential referral partners) know just what it is that we do, where and with whom ... and then make it clear to them just what they can do to help their clients to access our services.

Getting the word out to these referral partners can take many forms - networking meetings, giving presentations to defined groups, writing articles, advertising in targeted media, mail shots and personal contacts or introductions, to name a few - but what each of these methods have in common is that they build recognition of your services by letting others know more about just what it is you offer, how it can solve a given problem for them, and what they need to do to access it. This knowledge, once made clear to your potential referrers (or even directly to clients), ensures that your business is now on their RADAR, and as they encounter a client for whom your service fits the bill, they connect those dots much more easily, realising that you have what they or their client needs, leading them to the obvious choice then of making that referral to you.

To expand on these ideas and grow your business, check out my Business Breakthrough Programme, where I outline some key steps and present some tools that you can use to help increase your visibility and recognition factor with potential referrers.

As we build our businesses, particularly those of us with small, maybe one-person, operations, we know that we can only do so much on our own. But we are also very aware that, if we could only connect with maybe some key influencers within our area, they might help open important doors that will benefit us enormously. The challenge is ... how to make those important connections!

Personally, I like Steps 1, 4 and 6 ... give more, limit your ask, and reciprocate. Absolutely spot on! What do you think?For more ideas about how to grow your business, check out my Business Breakthrough Programme and learn how Mirror Coaching can help systematise your marketing to maximise your referrals.